Ebay harassing me for fees on item I did not sell.

[grass-hopper11]

Hi, I have been a buyer of Ebay since 2007. I never tried to sell anything on Ebay until last month. I listed an item and very shortly after cancelled the listing. Ebay is now harassing me for $59.00 in sellers' fees for an item I never sold. This was not clear from the onset. Ebay advertises that you can list up to 249 items for free. I've contacted an Ebay Customer Service Rep who informed me someone would get back to me. No one never did. Now Ebay's Collection Agency is harassing me regularly.  Any advice?  

[wastingtime101]

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@grass-hopper11 wrote:

I attempted to sell vintage perfume for $375.00. I received 1 bidder but I canceled the listing before the auction ended. I canceled because I thought Ebay's commission/ fees were extremely high. I did not make any secret deals or arrangements to sell to the bidder.  

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This page will show you transactions @grass-hopper11 :

https://www.ebay.com/mes/transactionlist?sh=true

Off to the right there's a link to view details next to each transaction. Can you post a screenshot of your transactions so we can help you determine what those fees are for?

Ending a listing early that has bids results in being charged fees on the transaction. On a $46 bid, that's a fee of $6.40, which would be higher if eBay factored in ship cost. Not sure which ship cost they'd use since it's variable (calculated) and there was no formal buyer.

As mentioned upthread, if you added a reserve that's considered a "listing upgrade" so it's not part of the free listing promotion. eBay displays that info on the listing form before you publish.

Reserve fees are calculated at $5 or 7.5% of the reserve price you set, whichever is greater, up to a maximum fee of $250. So a reserve of $375 means a non-refundable reserve fee of $28.13 if you used that option.

I don't believe promoted listings would apply here since you're a new seller and sellers typically have to have a selling history before they can access promotions, but if you do see an "ad fee" on the transactions page I linked above, that's what it would be for.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@grass-hopper11 wrote:

I canceled the listing before the auction ended. 

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Here's a link to the bid history, where we can see that the auction was ended early but was recorded as Sold because you didn't cancel the bids:

https://www.ebay.com/bfl/viewbids/155976257053?item=155976257053

If the buyer has paid, you would be charged a final value fee.   If the buyer paid, but you never shipped the item, then they probably would have by now filed a claim for "Item not received."  The total of the buyer's refund (item selling price, shipping cost, sales tax) and the eBay final value fee would be about $59.

[fern*wood]

When you ended the listing with bids it would have sold the item to the highest bidder if you didn't cancel those bids out first.  Did you receive payment from this buyer?  That amount seems to be close to what the buyer would have been refunded for their purchase, since you didn't ship them the perfume. 

[wastingtime101]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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If the buyer has paid, you would be charged a final value fee.   If the buyer paid, but you never shipped the item, then they probably would have by now filed a claim for "Item not received."  The total of the buyer's refund (item selling price, shipping cost, sales tax) and the eBay final value fee would be about $59.

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I don't believe that applies. I checked earlier and the listing was not found in Terapeak, so no payment was made (unless Terapeak is having a problem).

[nobody*s_perfect]

Thank you for looking into the payment situation.  Well, I'm out of theories.

[fern*wood]

The 250 free listings each month only applies to listing fees.  Final value fees and other fees still apply.  Your financial summary should show what the fees are for. 

[grass-hopper11]

I NEVER received any payment from the buyer because I canceled the listings.

[soh.maryl]

Is it the one you sold on Dec. 31st for $46? 

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@grass-hopper11 wrote:

I NEVER received any payment from the buyer because I canceled the listings.

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On December 31, you ended a listing early but you didn't cancel the bids so that item was Sold. But apparently the buyer hasn't paid for that transaction. You should cancel it now, based on 'Buyer hasn't paid."

[fern*wood]

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@grass-hopper11 wrote:

I NEVER received any payment from the buyer because I canceled the listings.

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What does the breakdown of the charges state on your financial summary?  There should be an explanation available to you, we can't see this.   Your listing shows sold on Dec. 31st.   If you didn't cancel the bids before ending it, then it will sell to the highest bidder. 

[lacemaker3]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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If the buyer has paid, you would be charged a final value fee.   If the buyer paid, but you never shipped the item, then they probably would have by now filed a claim for "Item not received."  The total of the buyer's refund (item selling price, shipping cost, sales tax) and the eBay final value fee would be about $59.

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I don't believe that applies. I checked earlier and the listing was not found in Terapeak, so no payment was made (unless Terapeak is having a problem).

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@wastingtime101  and @nobody*s_perfect,

Terapeak is intended to provide accurate selling prices for successful transactions, so if a seller doesn't ship or cancels a transaction for any reason, that listing might not be included in the Terapeak results, just like it isn't included if the buyer doesn't pay. So I'm not sure that the listing wasn't paid for. Lots of new sellers don't believe they have been paid until they receive the payout in their bank account, but it would probably have been on hold.

I don't think we have the whole story yet. The OP had several other listings for perfumes, which were all cancelled at exactly the same time. I was able to find these three, but there may have been others as well. None of them had reserve prices, and we know that OP failed to cancel the active bids  before they ended them.

Item #	Title:	Start:	BIN:	Bids:	Sold:	Ended:
155976257053	Christian Dior Hypnotic Poison	$    45.00	$    70.00	2	$   46.00	12/31/23, 8:38 AM
155976288055	Mandragore by Annick Goutal	$  110.00	$  150.00	0	no	12/31/23, 8:38 AM
155981412681	RITUALS Nuit a Marrakech	$    60.00	$  120.00	0	no	12/31/23, 8:38 AM
Totals:		$   250.00	$  340.00

I think there are two possibilities, at this point:

If eBay concluded that the listings were ended in order to sell them to a bidder off-eBay, then there would have been final value fees charged for the total BIN amount.

Or, it could have been the amount that eBay had to refund the buyer plus final value fees for the listing that was ended with a winning bidder.

[albertabrightalberta]

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@grass-hopper11 wrote:

 Now Ebay's Collection Agency is harassing me regularly.  Any advice?  

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I recommend you pay ebay the fees they're asking for or you'll find yourself in trouble if you ever need new credit cards, a mortgage, a car loan, etc. 

For $59, is it worth impacting your credit-worthiness (essentially) forever? 

My guess is that the $59 charge breaks down something like this: 
$46 - item price

$4.25 - estimated shipping (round numbers)

$4.25 - estimated sales tax (can vary depending on buyer's state's rate)

$7 - FVF (approx)

__________________

My total: $61.50 (based on estimates)

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@grass-hopper11 wrote:

....I did not make any secret deals or arrangements to sell to the bidder.  

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@grass-hopper11 

But you could've and the site would have NO WAY of knowing that.

If you cancel auction listings after a bid met the reserve, you owe unless you let the auction run and buyer doesn't pay and you then open a 'non payer' after 4 days.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@stainlessenginecovers wrote: ... If you cancel auction listings after a bid met the reserve, you owe unless you let the auction run and buyer doesn't pay and you then open a 'non payer' after 4 days.

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In this case, the auction had no reserve. The seller didn't cancel the auction: He ended it early but allowed the bids to remain, so it shows as Sold.  

[angelno_14]

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@grass-hopper11 wrote:

I NEVER received any payment from the buyer because I canceled the listings.

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Several people have explained that fees can apply when you cancel a listing even if you are not paid. 

Your eBay transaction detail will tell you exactly what fees your were charged, and what they were for.  You have been asked to give us that information but you have not. 

No one here can explain your fees without that information.